Is a Ford Focus similar to a Ford Mustang? How about Stephen King’s “Salem’s Lot” and “Cujo”? What about Subway’s 5-Foot “Cold Cut Combo” and it’s “Subway Club”? In most cases anything made by the same company, person, or group of people has some of the same components, ingredients and similarities. They are unavoidable! In fact they are inevitable! And sake is no exception.

Yes – there are many out there who perceive sake to be a hard alcohol! What does hard mean? Hard to wake up in the morning? You bet! No, usually hard means “distilled.” Sake is not distilled; rather it is fermented like wine or beer – or as I cleverly coined “sake – built like beer – drinks like wine.” Well actually not that clever at all really, but you get the point. My job over the years has be ... Read More

So how do you taste sake? Depends on your definition of taste. (Does that sound remotely like a Clintonian question?) Is taste flavor? Is taste feeling? Is taste simply tasting? Wow – this is spinning out of control right off the bat. Is taste a sense? Is smelling tasting? Is tasting smelling? What about hearing – is that part of tasting? How about seeing is that tasting? Is tasting just tasting? ... Read More

There is a great scene in the movie “The Shawshank Redemption” when the best voice-over in Hollywood – Morgan Freeman – talks about Andy’s love of rocks for his chess set, and for the little rock hammer that eventually buys his freedom. Morgan speaks about rocks in the very base terms of “time and pressure.” That’s it. Time and Pressure. If you want to know about rocks – you must have a general un ... Read More

Nigori or unfiltered sake is that really unique brew that has the fog/clouds/fluff at the bottom of each bottle. What the heck is that stuff? As unappealing as it sounds it's really the unfermented rice particles that were not removed. You mean it's like cold Uncle Ben's rice juice? Not a chance. Remember the process of brewing sake is to convert a starch (rice) into a sugar (glucose). Then the br ... Read More

I have been saying it for years! A starch sweetness is far more muted than a grape juice sweetness. Huh? Converting a starch into a glucose produces a far more mellow “sweet” taste than simply crushing a grape. So! Well – that is why I still have to pound wine drinkers, who think in terms of wine when they speak about their sake likes and dislikes! “I don’t like sweet sakes.” “I only like dry sake ... Read More

When I get emails from readers 9 out of 10 will say that they know nothing about sake, which is rubbish and I tell them that! Of course you know something about sake or else you wouldn’t be asking. Does that make sense? Hmmmm. I know nothing about carburetors, does that secretly mean that I want to know more about them? Nope and I have never emailed anybody and said, “I know nothing about carbure ... Read More

Not long ago I was asked to visit the radically fun and exciting video blog by the one-of-a-kind on-line wine guru Gary Vaynerchuk at winelibrary.com. A friend sent me the only episode that GV did on sake, and in a word I smiled. His passion – undeniably – is fantastic and I enjoyed hearing him speak to several brews that they sell in their store, but I thought to myself that he needed a visit fro ... Read More

Ahhhhhh ye’ol what sakes should I get question? I hear it all of the time – in fact I live it! Basically this is the perfect topic to kill at least five birds with one stone as I get restaurants asking me to build their sake menus – I get retail stores wanting me to create their inventories – I get catering companies imploring me to make the perfect sake event – I get chefs calling for the perfect ... Read More

I have spent a lot of time in Japan, but I have never lived there. I think that there is a big difference in “living” and “visiting” a country. As a visitor one can never see the layers of “routine” or “repetition” that creates the true living experience. And that is why for years I have asked my sake brewery owners to allow me the opportunity to go and work for them for a stretch of time. My long ... Read More